Cats on the prowl!
March 19th, 2008 by The IcemanThe Florida Panthers are hanging on for dear life in the final weeks of the season, and it’s about time. What do we owe the recent surge? Well as has happened in each of the two previous seasons, the Panthers seem to put it all together come end of February and early March, and are able for some reason to turn it on. Is it a little too late? We will have to wait and see as this could be the quietest seven game winning streak ever. This could actually be a blessing as there is not as much pressure as there would be if they were in a more traditional market.
Doesn’t make it right, but it’s a fact nonetheless.
The winning streak has prompted more fans to the home games recently as attendance is up during this seven game home stretch. The games they are winning are not all that pretty, but by keeping things simple and eliminating mistakes they have been able to put together a nice string. A couple big reasons for the turnaround seem to be the play of Tomas Vokoun and Olli Jokinen. Vokoun has been very, very sharp lately, and seems to be seeing the puck very well, and has not given up some of the softies that he was before. The time off that he was given when Craig Anderson started three games in a row has turned out to be the best thing for Vokoun as he admitted that he was mentally tired
Olli has been playing much better at both ends of the ice. He’s been more aggressive offensively and he is coming back on defense as well. I am sure that the Zednik incident coupled with another season of trade rumours took it’s tool. Thankfully he seems to be moving past that and has been able to concentrate on his game. Which is just what the Panthers need. You know the old saying “You’re best players, must be you’re best players”.
Other smaller items are helping as well. Radek Dvorak is back, the second line of Weiss, Booth and Horton has been very consistent, and Brett McLean is playing very well. As the Panthers get healthier they seem to be more consistent and confident. I am not going to go as far as saying that they are finally learning Uncle Jack’s system, but the overall mindset of the team seems to have improved. I still say that a new coach is going to be needed. Alot of talent is being wasted with so much concentration on defense, but in the meantime we’ll ride out the season and see how things end up.
Thursday’s game against the Hurricanes is huge! The Panthers many times over the past few seasons have been very close to either first place or a playoff spot and when they have the opportunity to take that next step they seem to always face Carolina, and the result isn’t normally a good one. Could this time be different? Carolina is playing in Atlanta tonight and will be playing back to back games while the Panthers will have had 2 days off before returning to practice on Wednesday. I can only hope that they are not suffering from sunburn at the beach. The weather here during the day has been great.
A victory against Carolina will make a very strong impression as well as keep the winning streak alive. I think that the Panthers just need to go out and continue playing the simple game they’ve played lately and not be in awe of their opponent. It’s nice to see the Panthers creating their own “March Madness”.
Thanks for reading.
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